Survival
by chaos-entropy
Summary: Universe Alteration. Zack didn't die at the hands of Shinra. He takes Cloud to Midgar to work in the underbelly of the slums whilst avoiding detection from the company that recently tried to kill them. But what's with this AVALANCHE group who are keen on recruiting them?
1. Chapter 1

The air was deathly quiet as the two men lay mortally wounded on the precipice just outside of Midgar. Even though the rain was clattering down around them, it might have been silent for all the two former soldiers knew.

Merely hours ago, they had been mercilessly hunted down by their former comrades and left for dead. Zack's injuries were terrible, but he simply refused to die. He had felt the slow degradation of his body, as the Planet tried to process him for the Lifestream. _No way,_ he thought. He wasn't going to go just yet. His will to live would be the anchor that secured him to this world. No matter how much blood he lost or how much the darkness seemed inviting to him.

The loudest thing to Cloud Strife was the beating of his mentor's heart. He was too shocked to move or do anything. Too afraid of hurting Zack, he simply lay there. His head was held closely to Zack's chest. A bullet had skimmed right through his pectoral, only narrowly missing the heart, which Cloud was listening to intently. He begged to all the deities ever worshipped for Zack to be spared.

Every now and then, Cloud would get the mental image of Zack's heart finally ceasing its weak pumping. He would be left alone in the world. Useless, useless Cloud who could never do anything right. Who couldn't graduate cadet training along with his peers. Whose one victory over an AVALANCHE insurgent was - in his eyes - sheer luck. Whose one moment of bravado had gotten him and Zack into this mess in the first place. He, who hadn't been strong enough to fight off the Mako poisoning in the labs, resulting in being _carried_ for almost a hundred miles.

He currently owed his life to Zack. His whole life.

Zack had given him motivation, courage, and mental fortitude where other army mentors had simply laughed at him and told him to do a hundred more push-ups. He'd even singled Cloud out of a row of cadets, just to put his hand on his shoulder and encourage him. Zack didn't care that Cloud wasn't particularly capable or would take a little longer to succeed. If Zack could make it all the way to SOLDIER First Class, anybody could.

Hours passed. The sky threw sheet upon sheet of heavy rain upon the two of them. Cloud bit his lip and thought back upon what had just happened.

_We were in a truck. Zack said something. Then shooting and then… and then…_

_That's right. I snapped out of it. Zack told me to stay back, so I did… and then…_

_I went over to him when hell broke loose._

_And that's where we are now. He's got more holes than a block of cheese, and I… I'm in pretty bad shape too. Maybe it was…_

His head began to throb. The Mako poisoning would still be rotting away at his brain, even if he managed to remain lucid. Cloud just focused on his breathing for now, and his prayers for Zack to be alright.

Zack's eyes were still wide open, but they were unfocused. Dying was an odd feeling. Zack had heard it described as simply falling asleep. Just close your eyes, relax, and you'll be in the afterlife. _No_. He thought. His mind was still struggling to stay awake. Despite the pain in his arms, shoulders and legs, Zack made sure to move them as lightly as possible. He had also realized there was no sight in one eye. Hence the weird lack of depth perception. Well, who knew. Aeris might like him in an eyepatch.

He had a little speech in his mind. If the pain _did _get too much, he needed to make sure Cloud would live out both their lives. Maybe he'd make a show of passing on the Buster Sword, the same way Angeal had conferred it on to him. Thankfully, the pain was lessening more and more. The Mako running through the two soldiers' bodies was perhaps healing them. Or maybe the Hi Potion Zack and Cloud had gulped down in the truck. The old man driving had thrown them two bottles from his knapsack on the seat beside him, and Zack had been grateful for the opportunity.

Cloud, meanwhile, was still listening out for Zack's heartbeats. At least his mentor's breathing had evened out for now.

"Oi."

Zack had started to feel better now. If only marginally. He smiled at Cloud.

Cloud gingerly got up off him, arms down beside Zack's shoulders. Blood dripped from the wound on his head onto Zack's uniform. "Are… you okay?" It was the stupidest question he could have possibly asked, but one he had needed to blurt out immediately.

"Well, I've been through worse, but… this isn't too great."

The former First Class sluggishly sat up, using the least painful broken arm to balance himself.

Cloud immediately tried to push him down again. "No! You're too badly hurt to move. Please, just rest for now."

He spat to the side, and Cloud was disturbed to see blood. He winced as he brushed Cloud off with his other arm.

"You think I'm going to die here? Wait for some Shinra guys to come back and pick us off? Screw that. We're off to Midgar, aren't we?"

The blond had to think for a moment. Yes, that _was _where they were heading. That was what Zack had said, right? "What if we get caught again?"

"We won't. I'm telling you, we won't."

"But-"

"No buts." Zack snapped. "We… we've survived this, Cloud. I'm not religious, but… I know someone was watching out for us."

The cadet sighed and sat backwards. "We can't move, Zack."

"Sure we can." The First Class grinned. "I'm not gonna die out here. We're going to live out both of our lives. _Both _of them."

The rain was slowly beginning to die down, bringing with it a low chill. Cloud huddled close to his partner. Zack wove an arm around his back, tugging him just that bit closer, just content to rest for a while.

Truly, he had no idea what they would do when they arrived in Midgar. Being a delivery boy had seemed like a good idea at the time. Someone would always need something delivered, and you would always be on the move. He was sure Shinra wouldn't try to go back after somebody who was killed in action. He and Cloud would sever all ties with them and become independent businessmen. Zack would appear in the doorway of Aeris' church with his winning smile and sweep her off her feet yet again. Maybe a few years later, with his business partner as best man, he would get married in that same church. Then they could move out of the city, far away from any Shinra influence. If that was even possible, Zack chided himself.

Going back to Midgar was likely throwing himself back into the lion's den. There just had to be one single report of somebody with Mako eyes wandering around the slums, and the Turks would gather him up for interrogation. Well, that was a worst case scenario. A contact lens for his Zack's functioning eye wouldn't help either, considering how vividly the irises of a Mako-infused individual glowed.

_First thing on the shopping list: sunglasses or tinted goggles_.

There was also the matter of finding a place to live. A year on the run had made Zack fully aware of the difficulty of having no home to report back to at the end of the day His and Cloud's only earthly possessions were the clothes on their backs, and while Zack had the Buster Sword, he would have to discard it or use it only as a keepsake from now on – it was far too recognizable to just whip out when clearing a path of monsters in the slums.

_Might as well just stick it in the ground here. Sorry, Angeal. It's going to wear, tear and rust._

Zack smoothed a hand through Cloud's hair. Little Chocobo head.

Maybe – if Aeris agreed to it – they could become Chocobo breeders, owning a small ranch that hired out the animals to people who needed them for crossing the mountains. It was strong, outdoors work, and Cloud had confessed to being a farm boy back in Nibelheim. Such a backwater place – nothing much else to do out there.

He winced at the memory as one figure came to his mind – Tseng. Zack knew he prowled around outside of Aeris' church for no discernible reason. It might not be wise to spend time with Aeris unless he was dead certain she wasn't being followed. The black helicopters firing shots at him as he desperately tried to win a battle where he was almost hopelessly outnumbered, were definitely the kind piloted by the Turks. Tseng might have even been in the cockpit.

The First Class SOLDIER – no, _ex-_First Class SOLDIER even briefly considered hiding out in the criminal underbelly. Maybe he'd take up bare-knuckle boxing and wrestling, popular in seedy arenas run by the Lower Midgar mobsters. But no, that would likely bring the Turks scouting for new SOLDIER talent.

After a few moments, Zack felt Cloud rising up from his chest. He watched as his comrade got to his feet, knees shaking like a newborn deer, trying to support lightly atrophied muscles. Cloud steeled his back, taking deep breaths before finally standing straight as the rain died down.

Zack was looking a lot better for wear than he had in the past few hours. His habit of gulping down health potions for even the slightest injury had served him well. His breathing had evened out, and his bleeding had slowed to a tiny trickle. Zack's clothes were shredded to pieces, but he thought he _might _be able to find some in Wall Market. Maybe Aeris had a father or an uncle he could borrow clothing from.

The SOLDIER didn't leap up into a standing position as usual. Cloud noticed him awkwardly twitching in an effort to get up, and gave him a hand. Zack was thankful that he hadn't broken any bones. Just lacerations and painful bruising.

Once standing, he attempted a squat, but thought better of it when his lower back protested. Maybe when he recovered some more.

Cloud was still balancing on wobbling legs. He was attempting to pace around to bring some feeling into them, despite the mental exhaustion he was feeling. Over a mere few hours, he had gone from believing that Zack was dead for certain to seeing a bright future with him. Perhaps.

The cadet exhaled as he wondered what would be left for him in Midgar. Going back home to Mom was no longer an option – he realized with a pang in his heart – but going home to Nibelheim could still be on the cards. But, he sorely remembered, there was nothing there. Part of the reason why he'd left for Midgar with the army recruitment truck was the utter isolation and hopelessness of life in the village. Isolated by mountains, empty plains and thick forests, there wasn't much to do in Nibelheim, nor could anybody set up a viable career. At least in the city you had more options than being a farmhand or a busboy at the local tavern.

"We're going to be mercenaries?" Cloud asked.

"Eh, I'm not a hundred percent sure right now." Zack replied, attempting to stretch his arms but wincing at the effort. "We'll think of something when we get there."

"That's _if_ we get there..." Cloud replied. Blue eyes scanned up to the sky, in case there really were any more black helicopters circling the wasteland.

"Uh, no." Zack grinned. "Somebody was looking out for us. I don't think we're going to be kicking the bucket any time soon. So, we'd better get on with our new lives."

Cloud had fixated himself on the landscape. "But... what if..."

"Cloud, they're probably long gone by now. The guy who shot me in the head is probably jeering about it in the troopers' mess hall."

"Uh, your eye..."

"Yeah, it's gone." Zack said, awfully chipper about the whole situation. "I could become a pirate. That'd be awesome."

Cloud laughed. "Well... you've got until we get to Midgar to decide on a career path..."


	2. Chapter 2

Cloud took Zack's hand in his, wrapping the ex-SOLDIER's arm around his shoulder. When Zack protested, Cloud insisted. "You carried me part of the way. Now it's my turn."

In a way, Zack was grateful. Despite the healing potions in his system, he was still aching, as if he'd sparred several rounds of hand to hand combat with Angeal.

His gut twisted.

_Angeal_...

"Cloud?"

"Yeah?"

"We're going to leave the Buster Sword behind."

Cloud gave him a look that suggested it was utter lunacy to wander through monster territory without a weapon. But he did as he was told anyway, giving Zack a moment to pray before they started on their journey.

Zack had never thought he could miss somebody so greatly. Angeal had guided him through the formative years of his life. The First Class imparted great advice, and was well-liked by those beneath him in rank. Sephiroth and Genesis didn't want to pick favourites or sponsor anybody for First, but Angeal had picked him out of a row of hundreds of Third Classes and insisted on taking him under his wing.

For a few years, Zack's life had been perfect. He was living the dream in Midgar, far from his backwater hometown. With a little hard work, he knew he could become as good as the great Sephiroth. Angeal had believed in him and Zack worked as hard as he could to prove himself to Angeal.

So why had his promotion to First been so underwhelming? Was all his hard work for naught? The hours he spent sparring and training with Angeal in the VR room, followed by more physical training in the gym and studying for the written exams on aptitude and tactics just felt wasted.

Especially now that he was no longer a member of SOLDIER. He'd gone from the highest rank in the military to looking like he would play a guitar for pennies at the train station. When _had _he last bathed? He didn't remember. He must look quite horrific, covered partially in blood and presumably having a gaping hole where his right eye should have been. If anything, his appearance was probably scaring away the monsters they should have been running into. Unless Shinra had finally stopped Hojo's Makonoids and other pet projects from escaping. He frowned at the irony.

Cloud trudged on further. Zack was taking shallow breaths, as if exhausted. Every time he slowed his pace, however, Zack would reply: "Keep going. We're almost there."

Eventually, the heavy steel bulkheads of Midgar loomed in front of them.

"Well, those are new." Zack joked. "Is there border patrol now?"

Cloud's lips pursed. "We could go to Kalm. Or Junon."

The ex-SOLDIER snorted. "Junon? AKA Shinra's main military base? Not such a good idea."

"Who said coming to Midgar was a good idea?"

"I did." Zack replied, nudging him. "And there's more hiding places in Midgar than there are in some little town like Kalm."

"That still doesn't answer how we're going to get in." Cloud said. He'd walked them both further, reaching out a hand to touch the fortress walls. A large gate had the sign SECTOR SEVEN painted at the top in blood-red paint.

"Shall we knock?"

"Zack..."

"What?" He reached into his back pocket, hoping that his PHS was still functioning. It wasn't. The screen was smashed and it wouldn't turn on. Zack, knowing that the Turks could likely trace the signal from his phone, had kept it turned off throughout their travels. (Somehow it had also survived their four year stay at Professor Hojo's leisure.)

Without warning, Zack pounded on the gate. Cloud winced at the loud noise.

"What are you _doing_!?"

"Well, there's got to be somebody manning the gate."

"And if it's a Shinra worker?"

"We... run?"

After a few nervous moments, the gates did open. It seemed to take a considerable effort, though – Zack had assumed they would be automatic, but each side of the gate was being pulled back by at least two people.

As the doors opened further, a man was standing behind them. Based on all the jewellery, the cigar lit in his mouth and his tacky orange fur coat, Zack assumed he was affiliated with one of the slum mobs. The four men who had pulled the gates apart stood behind their leader. They were thick set, tiny heads set atop massive muscular bodies. _Tiny brains too, no doubt. _Zack thought.

"1000 Gil each for passage into Midgar."

Cloud searched around in his pockets and Zack's. "Ah... We don't have the money."

"Ya know, you boys look like _shit_." The man said offhandedly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "I mean, sheesh, look at your eye." He looked at Zack, sucking in air through his teeth. "I can offer youse a discount if ya really badly need ta come in."

"What's the catch?" Zack asked. Before the mobster could elaborate, he was interrupted by one of his goons.

"Boss. They's SOLDIER."

The man in the orange fur jacket looked them up and down again. "...Shit, Lenny. So they are." He drawled, taking a drag on his cigar. "In that case, sirs, come on in." He glared back at 'Lenny' as Cloud and Zack passed, before he went to close the gate again.

Zack gave the mobster an odd look. Now there was definitely going to be a catch.

"Pardon my observation, but I'm guessing you're deserters."

Cloud stayed silent. If they admitted to it, there might be some mercenary work for them. Zack clandestinely nudged him, communicating: "_Don't you dare."_

"We aren't." Zack replied.

"So what if I call the local garrison and asks them if they know youse on their computer system?"

Zack's face feel. "No, we're... you see, we left the military. On our own terms. We just wear the uniform for mercenary work." He flashed a winning smile at the man and his goons. "Lends a certain credibility, you know?"

"Youse could get in trouble for that."

"No, we's never gotten in trouble for it," Zack replied, slightly irritated by the man's attitude. This was how he probably coerced many poor suckers into the criminal lifestyle. Grill them about their life story, and if they slipped up at some point... out came the blackmail. Clearly, he knew the kind of person he was dealing with. Normal people would have taken the train into Midgar or driven in through the highway. Only the truly desperate prodded around the perimeter of the city for one of the last working gates to actually be opened.

"Well, we could use some muscle. If yer interested. If ya don't mind me sayin', ya probably don't got secure jobs right now."

"Damn right we don't. We're, uh, usually based in... Rocket Town. Have been for years." Zack replied. "Came to Midgar to set up our own business."

"Bullshit. I ain't ever seen ya in Rocket Town." One of the goons said, just before his boss spoke. "An' I lived there for _all my life_."

"We were, uh... on the outskirts." Zack suggested. Even in his physically exhausted form, he hoped to the heavens above that he could take down these guys. Cloud... was Cloud strong enough?

The boss gave him a repulsive look. He had won. "So, you're mercenaries from Rocket Town. Pauly back there only moved here a few months back. Small place, that Rocket Town. Everybody knows each otha there. Even wanderers get a full welcome. Don't they, Pauly?"

'Pauly' grunted affirmatively.

Zack stepped aside from Cloud. He quickly scanned the area. Aside from piles of scrapheap, there was nobody else around to report their little skirmish. This would be a piece of cake.

"Cloud, grab him!"

The ex-SOLDIER flung himself towards the goons, smashing an elbow in one's solar plexus. 'Pauly' attempted to wrestle Zack, joined by Lenny.

The fourth goon joined the fray, throwing himself at Cloud, who had managed to apprehend the mobster. Cloud let him go, and attempted to defend himself from the muscular man, who twisted his arm, eliciting a pained shriek. "There's more where that came from, kid." He snapped, kicking Cloud to the ground and pummelling him.

Meanwhile, Zack was valiantly swinging his fists and directing hard kicks towards the goons, who were doing a good job of outnumbering him. He managed to crawl out of the scrum and stood up, trying to summon up the energy to actually remember and carry out his combat training. He'd squarely defeated the Seconds who had been dispatched to capture them on their travels, and gotten so good at fighting the random infantry troops that he viewed them as nothing more than mosquitoes that needed to be slapped away.

Zack's elbow flew into a jaw, spraying shards of teeth in all directions. 'Pauly' howled and attempted to get Zack on the ground again, only to have two fingers stabbed into his eyes. 'Lenny' then attacked Zack, heavily punching his nose. Zack took his arm and twisted it, flipping the goon hard onto his chest.

The final goon was incapacitated by another stomp to the solar plexus, as Zack marched over to free Cloud from the beating he was receiving. The mob don was stood a few feet away, grinning as if he knew something the ex-SOLDIER didn't. Zack was viciously head-butted after attempting to pull up Cloud's assailant from his shoulder. He fell backwards, dazed. Cloud twitched and groaned.

"Demetrius is my best fighter," the mobster drawled. Zack hadn't seen any evidence of a holster on the man, but he was now brandishing a customised shotgun, lazily waving it at the two ex-soldiers.

Zack groaned in pain, the mother of all headaches bursting into bloom. How had he let himself fall so far? Mob goons should have been extremely easy to defeat. Easier than Shinra's worst infantrymen. And here he was, incapacitated by men whose only combat training had probably been drunken brawls and underground wrestling matches. Even on five hours of sleep, he'd defeated a squadron of Seconds and Thirds only a few months back. But he was just so _tired_ and felt so broken. No wonder – Angeal had always said the mind of a soldier worked best when his mind was in as good a condition as his body. Or something to that effect. For the first time in years, Zack had felt like weeping.

_Oh, how the mighty do fall_.

* * *

Cloud had blacked out shortly after Demetrius had beaten him up. He was surprised to wake up lying on a bed in a small room. Well, a mattress. A very stained one, at that. Zack was groaning beside him, shielding his eye from the dim illumination given out by a lightbulb that was hanging down from a wire above them.

His body felt like absolute hell. A pitcher of water had been provided for them, oddly enough, but Cloud was so bruised and beaten that even sitting up was a massive chore. He hadn't slept well at all. He hadn't had a good night's rest for absolutely months. When he did fall asleep, and not just into a state of restful semi-consciousness, it was like explosions were going off in his mind. Someone or something was shrieking at him.

_HOW DARE YOU_

_MY SON_

_THE CHOSEN ONE_

_REUNITE_

_MERGE_

_JOIN_

_WILL KILL YOU_

_BUT FIRST YOU WILL KILL EVERYBODY_

_SLAUGHTER ALL THE UNWORTHY_

_YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A PUPPET!_

This cacophony of screams was countered by images drifting up from his subconscious: his failure to protect Tifa, the day his father had been finally reported dead after being missing for years, seeing everything he loved going up in flames... Not to mention the dreams where he was trapped in that tube again, held up by needles in his spine, and fed so many horrifying images as his body cried out in pain at the invasion of whatever concoction Hojo had injected into him that day. The brief freedom of being able to move before Hojo's assistants arranged him on an operating table and anaesthetised him. Having to learn from experience that if he didn't do exactly as the Professor said while he was awake, things would become a lot worse for him.

He looked over to Zack. "Are you awake?"

"Nnn..."

If anything, Zack was likely to be heavily concussed. Cloud thought to rest a while longer, but his curiosity got the better of him. The room they were currently in was barely big enough to house the queen size mattress they were sleeping on. There was a rickety bedside table with some water in a jug, and the walls were sheer concrete. If Cloud squinted in the dim light, he could see an old poster with Shinra propaganda.

He stood up, finding his way to the door. Then the thought struck him – could they be in prison? Had the mobster called Shinra to collect the deserters? They would have probably paid handsomely. He looked back to the propaganda poster and his blood ran cold. He'd never seen the prison cells in the Shinra slums, but he imagined they would be something like this – poorly ventilated and lit, only a mattress for comfort, hard stone floors and walls, and only the barest amenities that fell under their legal rights.

The door Cloud found was heavy and stuck, with no doorknob from the inside of the room. He stumbled back onto the mattress. Any moment now, he imagined being taken out for interrogation. Or even execution. Or worse – and he couldn't believe he was making this comparison – going back to Hojo's labs.

He had been right. Going to Midgar _had _been a stupid idea. Zack may have had his head in the clouds most of the day, but he _was _serious about his dreams. Quite why he would pigheadedly go into a place crawling with the Shinra troops who had tried to kill him was a mystery. Especially considering that there were plenty of places in the countryside where they could live freely, without Shinra interference. He would have even trekked all the way south to Cosmo Canyon.

Being trapped again was not ideal. Cloud tucked his head in his knees and closed his eyes, only to be met with a vision of fire.

_THE ADVENT WILL COME_

_YOU WILL PLAY PART IN IT_

_YOU ARE A TRAITOR_

_BUT YOU ARE ALSO A PUPPET_

_NO HE WILL NOT DIE AGAIN_

Cloud recoiled as if hit across the head. He was having nightmares while _awake _now? He would have cried, but... no, he wasn't going to. His mom was no longer there to wipe his eyes dry or offer some words of comfort. Crying was for the weak.

Then the nightmare twisted into a memory – his mother's soft touch on his shoulders, replaced by a hard grip, her kind voice replaced by an inhuman screech.

_I AM YOUR MOTHER._

_YOUR BELOVED MOTHER._

"No you are NOT!" Cloud surprised himself and Zack at the outburst. He had meant for it to be subvocalised – in his head – but here he was shouting to nothing. His hands shook, as Zack groaned and rolled over, showing his back and shielding his ear.

What the hell was happening?

_SHH, CHILD_

_SOON EVERYTHING WILL BE BATHED IN FLAMES_

Of course the nightmare would turn from his mother screaming at him to her burning corpse, the entire house going up in flames around them. She still clung to him, eyes hollow and desperate, mouth open in an empty scream. _"Oh merciful Gaia, HELP ME!"_

"MOM!"

"Will you stop yelling!?" Zack snapped.

Cloud opened his eyes wide, turning around to Zack. "...Sorry."

Zack sighed. "Where are we, even?"

"...I don't know."


	3. Chapter 3

Cloud hadn't been keeping track of the time, but he presumed he had been awake for at least two hours when he heard a noise coming from the landing outside.

Zack was still nursing his headache, but had moved to sit up with Cloud on his end of the mattress. His junior looked absolutely petrified when the footsteps grew louder and louder.

"What's gotten you so worked up?" Zack asked.

The shaking only got worse at the sound of fumbling behind the door.

"Relax, man, what's the worst that could happen?"

Then the door opened. The same mobster who had scammed them into Midgar, only to beat the tar out of them was stood there, rubbing his hands gleefully. The ever-present cigar was perched between his lips, and he appeared to have changed into a new fur coat. (The color of which bore an uncanny resemblance to a Cosmo Canyon Lion-Wolf.)

Cloud just sighed with relief. It wasn't the person he _wanted _to see, but it was a darn sight better than a Shinra-sanctioned executioner or a prison warden.

"Hello, boys." He grinned. "I thought we'd have a one to one. Don't you try anythin' funny, my guys know to apprehend ya if you try to get loose."

The ex First Class went from rubbing his temples to giving the mobster a steely glare. "What do you want with us?"

"I'm actually going to be offering you two jobs." He gave the two of them a look that seemed to insist that he was doing them a favour. "I knew there was something odd about ya when I saw the state of yer uniforms. A smart guy like me can spot a deserter."

"But we're _not _deserters." Zack protested. "We _left _the army of our own accord."

"So you either fell headfirst into a den of monsters, or the army tried to kill ya for deserting, and hunted you down. Whatever the case, yer not on Shinra's most wanted list or anything like that." He tapped out some of his cigar ash on the ground. "But... I figure you fellas need something to do to earn some Gil."

"We were going to do that _ourselves_."

"Yeah, yeah, but hear me out. I'm the don of this area, y'see? Even if ya had set up base here and run a successful business, my boys would have paid ya a visit and sorted out our business arrangements. We're pretty well-known in these parts."

Zack stood up. He was considerably taller than the Don, but the smirk on the mobster's face assured that he knew he couldn't touch a hair on his head. He was still poorly-rested and injured. The potions in Zack's system had stopped working a little while ago, he was still splattered with blood, and bruised from his wounds.

"What do you want us to do?" Zack asked.

"Work for me. Simple as that, my friend."

"You don't have any leverage on us."

The Don just shrugged. "Maybe I don't anymore. You're ex-SOLDIERs. Presumably the company ain't gonna honor your army pension. You look like hell, you've got no money on ya, and no ID either. If ya work for me, I can get you cleaned up and back in steady employment."

"What, as crooks? Working for an industry that does some terrible things, like murder and human exploitation and..." Zack cut himself off. He and the Don had caught sight of the Shinra poster on the wall beside them.

The Don snickered. "If ya want my opinion, Shinra are a lot worse."

"We know," Cloud murmured.

"I don't wanna hear no life stories, okay?" He took another puff of his cigar. "Ya's going to work here if ya want, because believe you me, ain't no other work around here. You's goin' to fall under the yoke of a Don somewhere in the slums. An' up top is crawling with the Shinra, who ya ain't too keen on meeting again."

Cloud looked over to Zack, who had clasped his hands together, steepling them beneath his chin. "Between a rock and a hard place."

"_Exactly_." The Don replied. "Why don't you boys come outta this room? We can fix ya up better and we can get ya some dinner."

Cloud and Zack's bellies rumbled, providing the answer. Zack marched in front of Cloud, occasionally passing weak glances over his shoulder as they passed through the hideout.

From what Zack could surmise, the hideaway was the long-abandoned home of a wealthy family, built back when Sector Seven was its own town and Midgar wasn't such a big metropolis. There was a large landing with several ornate doors, long windows and tall ceilings, a creaking wooden staircase, and the chandelier in the foyer was covered in thick veils of dust, hanging pathetically lopsided. This was probably the find of the century for any squatter. Along with his coercion tactics seen at the gates, Zack presumed the people who sought shelter here were also roped into working for the Don.

On the ground floor, the Don walked them into a large kitchen, where two of his employees were waiting. The countertops were made out of marble, but it was hard to tell beneath a thick layer of grime. The floor was checkered and the windows looked out onto a garden that probably once was the pride and joy of the family who had lived here, but now contained only an abandoned swing set, and varying lengths of different weeds.

Zack and Cloud were ushered to sit at the kitchen table, where aid kits were waiting. Some high potions were scattered around to alleviate the pain and allow their bodies to heal better. The rubbing alcohol still stung. Both of them had removed their shirts and were surprised at the huge amount of scarring once they had washed off the blood. Zack had large red weals where bullets had blasted through him, gunpowder burns, and a patchwork of hideous yellow and purple bruises covering much of his torso.

Cloud, on the other hand, was relatively unscathed. Aside from a large lacerated bump on his head, and a few bruises, he certainly didn't need as many bandages as Zack did. The two men assisting Cloud and Zack with their bandages gave Cloud an instinctive fear reaction. He had to remind himself over and over again that they were here to help, they were just people from the slums who had become good at patching people up. They were _not _doctors, just... _healers_.

Noticing his discomfort, one of the men gave Cloud a comforting squeeze on his shoulder. "Don't like blood, eh?"

"...You could say that."

Zack winced and squirmed as his missing eye was attended to. It wasn't physically painful, but the idea of them rootling around in his empty eye socket to fully clean it out was rather disgusting. The bone-shattering blast he'd taken to that side of his head, Zack was told, would require reconstructive surgery if he wanted a bionic eye. Zack snorted. Shinra's medical technology department tended to keep their bionic replacements under firm lock and key unless you had a lot of money, or very good health insurance. Neither of which he had right now. He exhaled through his nose as the men finished, applying the eyepatch around his head. It was a long strap of nylon, with the eyepatch part protruding over his missing eye.

Cloud smiled weakly at Zack when the two medics had finished with them.

The Don looked pleased as punch, sliding over two cartons of Wutai takeout with plastic cutlery he'd gotten from a deliveryman just as the medics had finished up. Naturally, Cloud and Zack wolfed down the first hot meal they had had in months.

The small things in life... Zack had never thought cheap takeaway food would make him so happy. The beef was rubbery and the peas slightly hard, with some very unpleasantly tangy soy sauce drizzled over, but it was better food than they had eaten in _months_.

With no money, and completely unwilling to take charity from strangers who might get into trouble with the Shinra forces, food had been a problem for the two whilst on the run. Sometimes Zack went digging through trash cans, or had to hunt down small game, lighting a campfire that was barely enough to cook it through before having to stomp out the flames in case it gave away their location.

"Don't eat too fast, now," the Don warned.

Zack nodded briefly, eating a little slower.

"I have plans for you boys," he elaborated, pulling up a chair himself. "Mercenary work, brawls, delivery jobs, you name it. I ain't like some of the other Dons who don't pay a livin' wage. I make sure I have a small task-force so's I can equally pay everybody, ya know what I'm sayin'?"

"Brawls aren't a good idea." Cloud said between a mouthful of noodles.

Zack nodded. "The Turks like to scout at those things. Ya know, for SOLDIER."

"I _know _that!" The Don said, as if the two had pointed out the most obvious thing in the world. "We try to keep out the Shinra. Plus, I've seen ya fight," he motioned to Zack, grimacing at Cloud. "You're a fighter, man. We was unfair and outnumbered ya on a bad day."

"You could say that again." Zack sighed. "If I become successful in the underground fighting circuit, then the Turks will find out about me. And considering the company thinks I'm _dead_..." He put his food down a moment. "You wanna know why we ain't so keen on the Shinra?"

"I said I didn't want to hear no life stories, boys."

"Well, clean out your ears and listen up," Zack said, leaning across the table. "Shinra betrayed us. They brought us up to believe that fighting was the best thing in the world and that so long as we stuck with Shinra, we'd be the best soldiers in the world. Then we nearly died." (Cloud shuddered, but was thankful Zack hadn't gone into detail.) "Did Shinra just pick us up and let us recover with a few health potions? Nah. They used us as human experiments."

The Don's eyes widened. "What?"

"Yeah. Those monsters that crawl around Midgar? Some of 'em used to be human. Enemies of Shinra, political prisoners, people from AVALANCHE... If the Science Department needs a human body to test some odd theory, they'll just get somebody to drag 'em out of their cell and into a test tube."

"So... Why has nobody protested or done anything?"

"Well, did you know Shinra did human experimentation before I told ya?" Zack replied. The Don shook his head. "No, ya didn't. And if you let it get out, you'd have the Turks blasting in your door an' dragging you off for spreading anti-Shinra propaganda."

"But people in the slums _hate _Shinra and everything they stand for," the Don said, blinking. "An' that's spreading anti-Shinra propaganda, ain't it?"

Zack shrugged. "I guess only when the Science or Weapons Tech department is involved."

A long silence passed over them.

"Aw, gee, shit. Now I feel kinda bad for you." The Don said. "There used to be an orphanage 'round these parts and you'd see Shinra people goin' in and out all the time, an' now I know why – they're recruiting _kids _for their sick war games."

"Uh, yeah." Zack replied. No need to let the Don know they originally _had _parents. Zack wasn't even sure if his mom and dad were still alive. Cloud was definitely an orphan, though.

"How old were ya when you was deployed?"

"14." Cloud said.

"16." Was Zack's response. "We... fought in the Wutai war."

"An' ya were betrayed by Shinra then?"

Zack nodded, returning to his box of takeaway, which was now slightly cold.

"Yes," Cloud said.

The Don whistled. "Man..."

Running through the mobster's mind at the moment was an odd sense of pity for the two boys. They looked so young and they'd seen such awful things growing up... But there might also be a huge reward if he reported them to Shinra. They may not have been on the local computer system, but he could always stroll up to the Upper Plate and report their location to the company. As human experiments, they'd probably escaped harbouring some terrible disease or some weird Materia planted into them. Was it even a good idea for them to be walking around free?

Then again... didn't people deserve second chances? He'd taken on people before who'd been on the run from the law. New clothes, new identities... Plus, it kept a good workforce loyal if they knew they owed their new path in life to your kindness. The Don wasn't known for being a softie, of course, but he was considerate of people who came to him when they had nowhere else to go. Having two ex-SOLDIERs under his wing might prove very beneficial later down the line...

"Look, I'll give ya jobs in delivery for now. Ya ain't need to worry about a thing, okay? If ya wanna be escorted for ya first few jobs, that's fine by me."

Zack pushed aside his takeout box, having long decided that the dregs of noodles and rock hard peas weren't worth the effort. "What's the pay like?"

"It's based on commission. Ya get paid if ya do the job correctly and efficiently."

"And what things do we have to deliver?"

"Secret documents. Drugs. Money from one Don to another, that sorta thing. Just keep yourselves inconspicuous, alright? I ain't having it if ya wind up dying or being kidnapped. Can ya boys drive?"

"I can. He can't," Zack said, motioning to Cloud.

Cloud had gone very quiet again, as if mulling over the situation. He had long forgotten about his food, and Zack noticed he was trembling violently again.

"Cloud?"

The younger man didn't respond. He was currently getting another vision smacking against the walls of his skull and incessantly screaming. He let out a piteous whine, slumping over the table with his hands curled up against his forehead.

Having seen this reaction hundreds of times before, Zack stood up from the table, roping Cloud's arm around his shoulder and hauling him up. "You'll have to excuse us. We'll think about your offer for a bit. Uh, thanks, by the way."

"No problem. Ya have until next morning, boys!" He cooed as they left the kitchen. "If ya wanna find me then, ask after Don Marco."


	4. Chapter 4

It had been a few days since Zack and Cloud had arrived at the Don's mansion in Sector Seven. The morning after Zack had escorted Cloud out of the kitchen and put him to bed, the Don had 'gone out on business'. Zack supposed he was giving him time to mull over the job offer. He asked some of the men wandering around the house if the Don had left any instructions for him, but they all just shrugged and told him they'd come to his and Cloud's room if they heard anything.

Eventually, three days passed. Cloud was doing better than he was, but he was still slipping into catatonia without warning. Sometimes he'd snap into a violent state. When Zack asked after the medics to change his and Cloud's bandages, everything seemed perfectly fine until one of the men pulled him up in his chair to stop him falling out, and Cloud wound up nearly hitting out at him, had Zack not caught his fist in time. The hatred in Cloud's eyes made Zack flinch; it was nearly identical to the crazed look Sephiroth had given him during their fight in Nibelheim.

Zack went down to ask after Don Marco every day for nearly two weeks. Sometimes the Don would flit in and out of the mansion, and other times he would isolate himself in his bedroom with a bevy of girls.

Cloud and Zack had absolutely nothing to do in that small bedroom, and Zack was worrying that the lack of stimulus might have been what was making Cloud's mind produce the auditory and visual hallucinations, not to mention the spates of unresponsiveness, and the night terrors.

The ex-SOLDIER didn't mind caring for Cloud. However, there were days when he sincerely wished he could at least talk to a scientist (non-Shinra affiliated, obviously), and learn more about how to support somebody with severe Mako poisoning, and if there was a potential way to alleviate the symptoms to make his best friend more comfortable.

Cloud had cried the other night. When Zack had asked him what was wrong, Cloud could only respond by whimpering that he was in a lot of pain. He recoiled when Zack attempted to give him a comforting rub on the shoulder. Zack had tried speaking words of encouragement to him, but Cloud rolled over against the wall, whispering something about his mother.

_When did it come to this...? _Zack had asked himself. _Cloud's been ill over the past few years, but not _this _sick. Maybe... Maybe it's the environment in Midgar? Maybe Cloud was right – we should never have come right into the heart of Shinra. _

Zack went downstairs into the kitchen day after day. As usual, only a few people seemed to be milling around, making packets of noodles or mugs of coffee, avoiding any questions about Don Marco that Zack had. Finally, he sighed and went back up to their bedroom.

Cloud was sitting up, more alert than he had been for a while. The first thing Zack noticed was the shreds of paper beside him, that once composed the vintage Shinra poster on their wall. He couldn't exactly blame Cloud. The place did resemble a prison cell, after all.

"Hey, Cloud? I'm going to go out and find work for us tomorrow. I mean, the Don's not exactly giving us jobs right now. Wanna know what we're gonna do when we get enough money to leave Midgar and support ourselves financially?"

"What?"

"I'm taking us to Cosmo Canyon. I mean, I've only been once, but it's beautiful." He laid back on the mattress with Cloud, and was happy to see Cloud give a weak smile. "Shinra don't bother them, they're probably really nice people, and they study the Planet. Perhaps they can fix your Mako poisoning. That sound good?"

Cloud's smile quickly creased.

"Oh? Do you want some time to think about it? You don't have to agree right away."

"No..." Cloud sighed. "Zack... I... I don't think I just have Mako poisoning. There's something else wrong."

Zack nodded. "I've been noticing for a while now that you're not okay, Cloud. But what could it be other than Mako poisoning?"

"...I hear voices in my head."

"Well, Mako _is_ distilled Lifestream–"

Cloud turned away. "I _know_ that. But... I don't know. It feels like... there's another presence in my mind."

The ex-SOLDIER hadn't ever come across anything like Cloud's condition, but he wanted to know more. "So... like a split personality?"

"No, it's not like that..."

"Cloud, man. I'm here for you. Any time you want to talk. If you don't want to talk about it right now, then I won't force you, yeah?"

"Mm."

Zack opened his palm, slapping his fist into it. "But I think we can both agree; being cooped up here is doing us no favors."

"Mm."

"So, if you're feeling up for it, tomorrow we go out and work. And maybe bathe, 'cos we kind of stink right now."

"Mm." Cloud had slumped against the wall, fidgeting with his hands. "Good idea."

* * *

The next day, Cloud was sat on the toilet in the downstairs bathroom as Zack scrubbed some of the water stains out of the bathtub. He figured it might be best to just allow Cloud to rest for now. The two soldiers had woken up at 5 in the morning – out of habit, really – and found they had the house to themselves for now. Cloud seemed to be in a particularly bad way, though. Zack hadn't been woken up by Cloud's screaming at all last night, but his junior clearly hadn't gotten a wink of sleep.

The poor kid... Zack wondered if he could ever flush the Mako out of his system completely. SOLDIERs needed it injected periodically to maintain their superhuman abilities, but Cloud had clearly gotten a dosage thousands of times above what an ordinary SOLDIER could handle. It was amazing just how dangerous the stuff was. Rumor had it that Sephiroth looked the way he did because he'd fallen in a Mako pool as a child. Kunsel had told Zack that Sephiroth once had darker hair and eyes from his half-Wutai background, but Zack had always brushed it off as just gossip. That was, until he had learned the truth of Sephiroth's origins... He shuddered and put it out of his mind.

Zack had carried Cloud for hundreds of miles and noticed just how badly the Mako had affected him. Cloud would sometimes vomit a green, glowing mess that left him retching for hours until it was all out. He was often trembling, lost in his own world and couldn't be brought around no matter how hard Zack tried. He wouldn't eat, he could hardly sleep, and often woke up screaming when he did manage to sleep. Zack had tried to convince himself that Cloud's illness was just a by-product of the experiments, but it still frightened him.

Mako wasn't just a performance enhancer, which was what he'd been told the day of his first injection. It was a horrific poison if given in huge amounts, and the fact that Cloud's body was still able to fight it was a miracle in itself.

But then Zack thought – what if this was the calm before the storm? He'd considered before that Professor Hojo would implant a virus in his experiments, so if they ever escaped they would die from the lack of an antidote that was pumped into their systems whilst in the tanks. However... if that were the case, why was Zack a picture of health? Had he really become immune to Mako from all the treatments he'd had in SOLDIER?

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, it's okay." Zack said, noticing Cloud was nearly falling off the seat. "Cloud? Cloud? Can you hear me?" He made a fist. "How many fingers am I holding up? Come on, tell me."

Bright, glassy blue eyes stared up at his companion. "Ze...ro..."

"Okay, good. How are you feeling?"

"Tired..."

"We've just slept."

"Want to rest..."

Zack sighed. "I'm going to run us a bath, 'kay? Or we can take turns. But I'm going to be in the room with you, because I don't want ya hurting yourself. Alright?"

"Mm..."

Zack turned on the water. The ancient pipes behind the wall loudly rattled, before the boiler clicked on behind them. Having not bathed for months, Zack was quite glad to find plenty of shampoos and soaps in the cupboard behind them. The water was growing hotter and wasn't quite as disgustingly polluted as water tended to be down in the slums.

When Cloud did slip off the toilet seat, Zack caught him. He rubbed circles into Cloud's back, hoping to soothe him, not knowing what else he could do. He slowly removed his and Cloud's bandages and clothing, eventually pulling him up and into the bath with him.

Cloud tensed.

"Hey, hey, it's alright. It's just water." Zack sat, maneuvering Cloud around so he was sat opposite. He seemed to calm down, but still didn't look entirely comfortable.

As they washed, Zack regaled Cloud with some of his life story. He wanted Cloud to crack a smile, so he made sure to include some of the stupid things he'd done as a kid. Climbing up the high hill to roll down it, except he wound up rolling too fast, went flying and smacked into a tree. The first time he was taught how to use Materia at boot camp, casting Thunder at his senior officer completely by accident. (He winked.) Going out drinking with his buddies, dancing so wildly in the club that he sprained his ankle. Angeal hadn't been best impressed with that. He continued on with more hopefully amusing stories, and the social stimulation seemed to be working on Cloud. He was actually getting some color back in his cheeks.

"So, uh, how about you, Cloud? Got any fun stories to share?" Zack asked, rubbing a large amount of shampoo into Cloud's hair.

"...Not really," the junior admitted. "The time we met was great."

"Aw, yeah. Tseng could have never hoped to keep up with us." _And I hope he never does_. Zack thought, remembering the senior Turk with a shudder. "Us country boys gotta stick together."

He thoroughly washed through Cloud's hair, starting on his own, when a thought came to him. "Hey, Cloud? Have you got any distant relatives? Maybe some uncle we could live with?" Zack had cursed his luck – he was the only child of a loving couple, both of whom were only children, and both sets of grandparents had died when Zack was an infant. His parents didn't elect anybody to be Zack's godparents, so he was out of luck on the relatives front. He had no idea why the thought to ask Cloud had slipped his mind.

"I don't think so."

Zack poured a jug of water over Cloud's head. "Don't think so? Or don't know so?"

"My mom... well..."

"No, no, you don't need to talk about it if it's painful, man." Zack said, noticing Cloud's discomfort. "I don't wanna hear about your mom. What about your dad or uncles or aunts or grandparents?"

Cloud shifted in the tub. "My father's dead. He eloped with my mom, I think... from up in the north."

"Icicle Inn?"

"I don't know. It has been 20 years... if I did have grandparents, they've moved on or died by now."

Zack nodded. "Ah. Well, I guess these things happen. Anybody else?"

"No."

A thought suddenly came to Zack. It was so, _so _obvious that it almost enraged him. "You know, before everything happened, I had somebody I could count on. She's probably... well, I dunno. Maybe she's moved on. I would, if somebody left me behind for four years."

"You had a girlfriend?"

Zack beamed. "Yes, I sure did. She was amazing. Lives right in the slums here. Sector 5."

"Then we could move over there?"

"...Actually, it might be a bit awkward." The ex-SOLDIER sighed. He loved Aerith, but there was no way he could ever expect their relationship to be the same again after being away for four years. She probably wouldn't believe him if he told her he hadn't been able to get in contact. Maybe she'd been really hurt by it and thought he didn't want her after all. Maybe she was with somebody else now. "I dunno. It's an option, I guess."


End file.
